5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Will Settle Suit for $40 Million

Lawyers,
in foreground, and the five defendants in the Central Park rape case of
a female jogger waiting for the ruling in February 1990 in State
Supreme Court in Manhattan.

James Estrin / The New York Times

By BENJAMIN WEISER

June 19, 2014

The
five men whose convictions in the brutal 1989 beating and rape of a
female jogger in Central Park were later overturned have agreed to a
settlement of about $40 million from New York City to resolve a bitterly
fought civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment in the
sensational crime.

The agreement, reached between the city’s Law
Department and the five plaintiffs, would bring to an end an
extraordinary legal battle over a crime
that came to symbolize a sense of lawlessness in New York, amid reports
of “wilding” youths and a marauding “wolf pack” that set its sights on a
28-year-old investment banker who ran in the park many evenings after
work.

The confidential deal, disclosed by a person who is not a
party in the lawsuit but was told about the proposed settlement, must
still be approved by the city comptroller and then by a federal judge.

The
initial story of the crime, as told by the police and prosecutors, was
that a band of young people, part of a larger gang that rampaged through
Central Park, had mercilessly beaten and sexually assaulted the jogger.
The story quickly exploded into the public psyche, fanned by
politicians and sensational news reports that served to inflame racial
tensions.

The
five black and Hispanic men, ages 14 to 16 at the time of their
arrests, claimed that incriminating statements they had given had been
coerced by the authorities. The statements were ruled admissible, and
the men were convicted in two separate trials in 1990.

In
December 2002, an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney,
Robert M. Morgenthau, found DNA and other evidence that the woman had
been raped and beaten not by the five teenagers but by another man,
Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist and murderer who had confessed
to acting alone in the attack. Concluding that the new evidence could
have changed the original verdict, Mr. Morgenthau’s office joined a
defense motion asking that the convictions be vacated.

The
proposed settlement averages roughly $1 million for each year of
imprisonment for the men. That amount would suggest that the city was
poised to pay one of the men, Kharey Wise, who spent about 13 years in prison, more than it has in any wrongful conviction case.

The
lawsuit had accused the city’s police and prosecutors of false arrest,
malicious prosecution and a racially motivated conspiracy to deprive the
men of their civil rights, allegations which the administration of
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg denied and fought vigorously for more than a
decade in federal court.

In contesting the suit, the
Bloomberg administration argued that the authorities had acted in good
faith and with cause, and should not be held liable. In 2011, a senior
corporation counsel lawyer said that the charges had been supported by
“abundant probable cause, including confessions that withstood intense
scrutiny, in full and fair pretrial hearings and at two lengthy public
trials.”

In early 2013, the city’s Law Department echoed
those views. “The case is not about whether the teens were wrongly
convicted,” a department spokeswoman said. “It’s about whether
prosecutors and police deliberately engaged in misconduct.”

But
in January, lawyers for Mayor de Blasio asked the court to delay the
litigation so that the new corporation counsel, Zachary W. Carter, could
“get up to speed on the facts and the circumstances” of the case.
Later, the mayor said that Mr. Carter was “committed to making sure we
get to that settlement quickly, some complicated issues, but we’re going to work through them very, very quickly.”

If
the proposed settlement is approved by the comptroller, Scott M.
Stringer, it would then be submitted for approval to Judge Deborah A.
Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan. In 2007, Judge Batts
rejected the city’s motion to dismiss the suit and allowed most of the
claims to proceed.

In such settlements, the city
typically does not admit liability or wrongdoing; and any settlement
with the five men would presumably include the legal fees and costs.
Aides to Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Carter and Mr. Stringer all declined to
comment on Thursday when asked about the discussions, as did Jonathan C.
Moore, a lawyer representing four of the men. A lawyer for the fifth
man did not return a message seeking comment.

The
proposed deal comes not long after the city said it would settle two
longstanding lawsuits involving the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk
practices. In that litigation as well, Mr. de Blasio reversed the
city’s long-held position, and he agreed to sweeping court-ordered
reforms that the Bloomberg administration had tried to block on appeal.

The
mayor made that announcement at a news conference in Brownsville,
Brooklyn, where stop-and-frisk tactics had been widely used. He appeared
with Mr. Carter; the police commissioner, William J. Bratton; and, in a
show of unity, lawyers with groups that had sued the city.

It is not yet known if or how the mayor might announce a settlement of the Central Park lawsuit, if it is approved.

Over
the years, the men have consistently maintained their innocence in the
rape of the jogger, Trisha Meili, who was left with no memory of the
attack. (Years later, Ms. Meili revealed her identity
and wrote a book, “I Am the Central Park Jogger.”) In prison, three of
the men — Mr. Richardson, Mr. Salaam and Mr. Santana — maintained their
innocence in the rape at parole hearings, where such a stance hurt their
chances at a reduced term. At the hearings, the men acknowledged being
in the park as part of a group of teenagers, some of whom committed
assaults unrelated to the attack on Ms. Meili, and most expressed regret
for the events, without going into specifics, transcripts show.

Mr.
Santana indicated in his hearing that the larger group was out to rob
people. “I took part in with the beatings of that man,” he said of one
victim, adding, “If I could go back in time and not do it again, you
know, it would have been a whole different story.”

The men’s lawyers have long said that their clients committed no crimes in the park that night.

In recent years, the case remained in the public eye, largely through a documentary, “The Central Park Five,” made by the filmmakers Ken Burns; his daughter, Sarah Burns; and her husband, David McMahon.

As
recently as last Friday, about 100 people gathered at the Brown
Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn to view the film and to hear a talk
by one of the men, Mr. Salaam. He described the stigma of living with
the brand of being a rapist. “It wasn’t a popular thing to be one of
us,” he said. The film, he added, “really gave us our lives back.”

At
one point, he addressed the lawsuit. “Mayor de Blasio has said that he
will settle this case for us and there has been some positive motion,”
Mr. Salaam said, adding, “We’ve been waiting for 25 years for justice.”

Yes, finally after all these years. I feel really bad for these guys, their families and the victim. Even though all the h*ll they went through can't be undone, this will at least be a new start. I watched their documentary on Netflix, and several of the guys were saying how hard it is for them to find jobs, and provide for their families. Mainly because the assault charges are still on their records even after 17 years. Thank God they will no longer have to worry about money.

And Donald Trump is not happy about it... he such a racist, he was the one who got a full page on NYT at the time saying that those men needed to be prosecuted for attacking the woman, and now he thinks they shouldn't even get paid for spending years in jail for something they didn't do.

In a
scathing attack on the $40 million settlement handed down to the Central
Park 5 - at the expense of taxpayers - Donald Trump has called the
payout a 'disgraceful' and 'ridiculous' result owing to the
'incompetence' of the New York City justice system.

Writing an opinion piece for The New York Daily News on
Saturday, the real estate mogul - who has long advocated the five
then-teenagers receive the death penalty for the brutal rape and bashing
of an investment banker in Central Park in 1989 - said that even though
the men had been exonerated, the $40 million settlement was overblown.

'Forty
million dollars is a lot of money for the taxpayers of New York to pay
when we are already the highest taxed city and state in the country,' he
wrote in the paper.

'The
recipients must be laughing out loud at the stupidity of the city ...
These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels.'

The
five black and Hispanic defendants - Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson,
Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Kharey Wise - were aged between 14 and
16 when they found guilty in 1990 for the horrific attack on Trisha
Meili, 28, who had gone for a run in the park.

+6

Settlement: (left to right) Korey Wise, Antron
McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Yusef Salaam in 2012 in
New York City. The men have settled for $40 million for their wrongful
conviction for the rape of a 28-year-old woman in Central Park in 1989.
Donald Trump has called the payout 'a disgrace'

She
was found in brush with a serious head injury, having lost 75 percent
of the blood from her body and with no recollection of what happened.

+6

Scathing: Donald Trump says the $40 million Central Park 5 settlement is 'disgraceful' and shows the 'stupidity of the city'

Alleged police brutality forced false confessions from the five teens.

They
served six to 13 years in prison before their convictions were thrown
out in 2002 because DNA evidence that was dug up showed Matias Reyes, a
convicted killer and rapist, had committed the crime and acted alone.

At the time of their trial, the men argued the DNA would have triggered a not-guilty verdict but that the evidence was ignored.

Reyes,
already in prison for other charges, admitted to attacking Trisha
Meili, who was in a coma for 12 days and suffered permanent damage.

The five sued police and prosecutors for $250 million.

On
Friday, 25 years after the attack, the city agreed to give the five a
settlement 'in the ball park' of $40 million, which was seen as a symbol
of the failure of the justice system.

'My opinion on the settlement of the Central Park Jogger case is that it’s a disgrace,' Trump wrote in his piece.

'A detective close to the case, and who has followed it since 1989, calls it “the heist of the century''.'

'One thing we know is that the amount of time, energy and money that has been spent on this case is unacceptable.

'The justice system has a lot to answer for, as does the City of New York regarding this very mishandled disaster.'

'As citizens and taxpayers, we deserve better than this.'

The
agreed deal, which must still be approved by the city comptroller,
averages out at roughly $1 million for each year of imprisonment for the
five men.

That
means that Kharey Wise, who spent 13-years in prison, will be the
largest single payout New York City has made in a wrongful conviction
case.

The other four men all served around seven years in prison.

The
men are all in their late 30s or early 40s now and New York City Mayor
Bill de Blasio was said to be keen to have the case settled.

This
was in direct contrast to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg who argued the
original $250 million suit was too high because authorities acted in
good faith.

+6

Arrest: In this April 22, 1989 file photo, Yusef
Salaam, 15, second from left, and Raymond Santana, 14, right, are led
from the 24th Precinct by a detective after their arrest in connection
with the rape and severe beating of a woman jogging in Central Park

+6

Yusef Salaam, second right, is escorted
by police in New York in 1990 after being convicted of raping a white woman in
Central Park. New York
City has agreed to a $40 million settlement in a civil rights lawsuit
filed against police and prosecutors by Salaam and four co-defendants

+6

Dolores
Wise, left, whose son Kharey Wise was one of five youths convicted in
the 1989 Central Park jogger case, pumps her fist in the air as she
sings We Shall Overcome at a rally in front of State Supreme Court in
New York on October 21, 2002

Indeed, according to the New York Times, the city's Law Department backed this opinion at the time.

'The case is not about whether the teens were wrongly convicted,' a department spokeswoman said.

'It’s about whether prosecutors and police deliberately engaged in misconduct.'

The
attack on 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili occurred on April
19, 1989. It was one of the most notorious crimes in New York City
history and it mesmerized the nation, serving as a lurid symbol of the
city's racial and class divide and its rampant crime.

'Drugs.
Guns. Gangs. New York City was just crime central at that time,' said
former New York Detective Kirk Burkhalter, recalling an era so
blood-soaked that the city had a record 2,245 homicides in 1990,
compared with 414 in 2012.

'You were scared to ride the trains after dark. It was such a different place.'

THE CRIME THAT STUNNED A NATION AND CHANGED NEW YORK CITY FOREVER

Trisha
Meili was out jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989, when she was
bound, gagged, raped and beaten nearly to death, a chilling crime to
which five teenage boys confessed after hours of interrogation by New
York City police.

From
the start, the rape of a 28-year-old white woman in the park drew
intense media coverage and led to the term 'wilding' to describe gangs
of youths terrorizing random passersby.

The five were convicted in 1990 based on the confessions, delivered after interrogations that in some cases lasted overnight.

Twelve
years later, Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist who had
attacked a woman in the park two days before Meili's assault, confessed
to the crime, and DNA testing tied him to the rape.

In
a 2002 report recommending the convictions be vacated, prosecutor Nancy
Ryan concluded that the boys' confessions contained 'troubling
discrepancies' and that Reyes' description of the attack matched the
crime scene.

A judge
vacated the convictions. By then, however, the boys had already been
released after serving sentences ranging from five years to 13 years.

In
2002, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly appointed a panel to produce its
own report, which concluded that the boys likely attacked Meili before
Reyes did.

Former prosecutor Michael Armstrong, who co-authored the report, said Ryan erred in dismissing the boys' confessions entirely.

'It seems impossible to say that they weren't there at all, because they knew too much,' he said in an interview.

Lawyers
for the plaintiffs said the belief that the boys are guilty is
pervasive among the dozens of police officers who have been deposed.

'They protect each other,' said Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, a lawyer for the five. 'It's always like this.'

However,
in prison, three of the men, Richardson, Salaam and Santan said they
were innocent but acknowledged they were in the park committing assualts
- but not rape.

Mr.
Santana indicated in his hearing that the larger group was out to rob
people. 'I took part in with the beatings of that man,' he said.

'If I could go back in time and not do it again, you know, it would have been a whole different story.'

The men’s lawyers have long said that their clients committed no crimes in the park that night.

When Meili was found in the brush, more than 75 percent of her blood had drained from her body and her skull was smashed.

She was in a coma for 12 days, left with permanent damage, and remembers nothing about the attack.

Meili later went public as a motivational speaker and wrote a book.

Raymond
Santana and Kevin Richardson, both 14 at the time, Antron McCray and
Salaam, 15, and Korey Wise, 16, were rounded up and arrested.

After hours of interrogation, four of them recorded confessions on video, in some cases with the boys' parents in the room.

+6

Bravery: Trisha Meili, The Central Park Jogger
published a book about her harrowing experience - waiving her anonymity
to reveal her recovery and the trauma she experienced

At
the trials, their lawyers argued the confessions were coerced. At the
time, DNA testing was not sophisticated enough to make or break the
case.

In
2002, a re-examination of the case found that DNA on the victim's sock
pointed to Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist who confessed that
he alone attacked the jogger.

Then-District
Attorney Robert Morgenthau stopped short of declaring the Central Park
Five innocent but withdrew all charges and did not seek a retrial. (The
statute of limitations for charging Reyes had run out; he is serving a
life sentence for other crimes.)

Roger Wareham, one of the lawyers for the five, said the DNA was the key.

'There
was never any forensic evidence that tied them to this case,' he said.
'In 1989, everybody might not have been forensic savvy, but now, after
'Law and Order,' everybody knows if there's no DNA, they didn't do it.'

But an overturned conviction does not automatically mean there was any wrongdoing by prosecutors or police.

Legal experts said the case took a long time in part because of the money and reputations at stake.

The two-hour documentary, 'The Central Park Five,' made the case that the men were wrongly convicted.

The
film uses extensive interviews with the men and their families, and
lawyers for the city went to court to demand outtakes for use in the
civil case.

The defendants' lives since they got out of prison have not been easy. Wise was recently re-arrested. McCray moved away.

Santana
sold drugs and was sent back to prison, but now, along with Richardson
and Salaam, has become the public face of the case, speaking out against
wrongful convictions and racial profiling.

'We are over being angry. Now it's about helping others, raising our own families right,' said Santana, now 39 last year.

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